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BLACK HISTORY MONTH
LESSONS FOR OUR LIBERATION
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With the New Year officially underway, we are excited to share some valuable insights and ideas to help you continue to be inspired, informed, engaged in this tradition, and contributing to the social movement's liberating spirit! You can boost your efforts in 2024, by participating in the many events, workshops, and volunteer efforts at the FRUIT OF LABOR WORLD CULTURAL CENTER.
In this February issue of our Newsletter, join us in our weekly calendar, Thursday 6:00 PM film BLACK HISTORY MONTH FILM AND DISCUSSION SERIES. We will capture everyone's attention and hearts BECAUSE BLACK HISTORY IS CENTRAL TO AMERIAN and LABOR HISTORY!
JOIN family, co-workers, and community as we all engage in BLACK HISTORY MONTH...We at the FOL WCC call it "Black Liberation Month"! We must study, and learn from the bitter setbacks and sweet advances & and victorious lessons of our history...SO WE CAN ADVANCE AND MOVE FORWARD!
Come join us as we share musical experiences/performances, films, songs/music, books, drama, poetry, hip-hop, community discussions, workshops, and more.
You will fall in love with our FRUIT OF LABOR WORLD CULTURAL CENTER EXPERIENCE! Finally, please register your friends, fellow activists, co-workers, family, and others at www.fruitoflabor.org to receive our newsletters and invitations.
Come out to learn how to find and make meaningful connections with potential friends and comrades.
Stay inspired, informed, educated, engaged, and liberated!
The FOLWCC Team
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Fall in love with Black History Month...Our Black Liberation Month Cultural Experience!
Go beyond the obvious this February and celebrate! Spark your creativity
and social justice engagement.
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Remembering Rosa Parks on Her Birthday
We must always raise our many unsung women leaders and "SHEROS " in our movements and hoods!
Take a minute...share her story and contributions in your home, workplace, and hood. Google to learn more about this hero.
HONOR THIS BLACK WORKING-CLASS LEADER WITH YOUR ENGAGEMENT AND ACTION!
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On February 4, we remember and honor Rosa Parks, whose militant
planning and actions helped serve as a catalyst for a powerful 19650-60's movement, change, and affirmed that everyone has the HUMAN RIGHT to equal access to public services.
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"Black History and African Americans are Fighting on Many Fronts!"
- Cornell West on GENOCIDE
BLACK HISTORY MONTH has lessons for our liberation!
The capitalist media and their government will have you believe that your real enemy (...colonial zionist Israel) is your friend... and that your real friend
(Palestinian people like our own people fighting for liberation) is the enemy!
-Malcolm X
'What's Going On In Your World & our Community? Cornell West calls out the Zionist Palestinian Genocide and U.S. support for racism and Zionism! Come out for a Black History Month film and discussion on Black History and Liberation! at FOLWCC.
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FEBRUARY 2024 CALENDAR OF EVENTS | |
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Thursday, February 1; 6:00-7:00 PM; Black History Month Series: Lessons for Building our Liberation Movement; Our History – our story needs our family and community; FOLWCC Archival Project - view original movement notes, photos, videos and more from the 60’s, 70’s to the present; Contact Dennis Rogers or Angaza Laughinghouse at (919) 876-7187 for more info. Food and beverages are free, but donations are accepted.
Thursday, February 1; 5:00-7:00 PM; Prevent Diabetes Culinary Program Series; presented by Eatwell Exchange at FOLWCC. This series includes both classroom and cooking instruction; 1/8, 2/1, 2/15, 2/29, 3/21, 3/28, 5/23; cooking instruction – 1/25, 2/8, 2/22, 3/7, 3/21; 6/20 graduation (classroom and cooking, taught by a registered dietician, Jasmine Westbrooks); contact: Jasmine@eatwellexchange.org for more info.
Saturday, February 3; 10:00 AM-1:00 PM; Quilting Classes at the FOLWCC. The first class will be from 10:00 AM–2:00 PM; all other classes will be from 10:00 AM-1:00 PM; January 27; February 3 & 17; and March 2, 2024. Classes will be taught by an experienced quilter, Cynthia Hayes. This class series is closed, but contact her at chayes10@gmail.com for information about future quilting series.
Thursday, February 8; 6:30-8:00 PM; Black History Month Series: Lessons for Building our Liberation Movement; Electoral Lessons and our Battlefield – brief film clips on the Tulsa, OK Massacre, 1898 Wilmington, NC Massacre, Roseville, FL Massacre, Malcolm X on the Ballot or the Bullet; discussion on lessons learned and why building united fronts is necessary; food and beverages are free, but donations accepted; RSVP to (919) 876-7187.
Thursday, February 8; 6:00-8:00 PM; Prevent Diabetes Culinary Program Series; presented by Eatwell Exchange at FOLWCC.
Saturday, February 10; 6:00-10:00 PM; Save the Last Dance 4 Me Soul + R&B even at FOLWC; Live music featuring the band- Nature Blu with special guest Jeff Hall of the Drifters; $20 donation; Music, Food, Vendors, Good News and Fun; to RSVP or for vendor information registration and attendance call Nathanette at (919) 876-7187 or email fruitoflaborwcc@netscape.com. A social justice fundraiser. Brought to you by FOLWCC and Broken Wings Music Group. Tickets may be purchased in advance on Eventbrite.com or at the door. RSVP (919) 876-7187.
Thursday, February 15; 6:00-8:00 PM; Prevent Diabetes Culinary Program Series; presented by Eatwell Exchange at FOLWCC.
Thursday, February 15; 6:30-8:00 PM; Black History Month Series: Lessons for Building our Liberation Movement; Black Worker’s Importance to the US; Labor History and to Building our Power and Liberation Movement; Film clips and discussion; food and beverages are free, but donations accepted; RSVP to (919) 876-7187.
Saturday, February 17; 10:00 AM-1:00 PM; Quilting Classes at the FOLWCC.
Thursday, February 22; 6:00-8:00 PM; Prevent Diabetes Culinary Program Series; presented by Eatwell Exchange at FOLWCC.
Thursday, February 22; 6:30-8:00 PM; Black History Month Series: Lessons for Building our Liberation Movement; Women Hold Up Half the Sky – brief film clips and discussion from “Fundi – the Ella Baker Story”; organizing for March 9th International Working Women’s Day; food and beverages are free, but donations accepted; RSVP to (919) 876-7187.
Saturday, February 24; 10:00 AM; Biltmore Hills Neighborhood Association meeting at the Walnut Creek Wetlands Center; 950 Peterson, Raleigh, NC. If you would like to participate in the meeting, reply to Rhonda Little at (919) 537-6969 or email: rhondalittle10@yahoo.com. You can also contact Gregory Moss at (704) 773-7388, email: gregory.k.moss@gmail.com.
Sunday, February 25; 4:00-8:00 PM; Only on Sunday Jazz Sessions at FOLWC; Live music featuring the band- Jazz Builds the 919; $15 pp or 4 for $40; Music, Food, Vendors, Good News; Fun; to RSVP or for vendor information registration; attendance call Nathanette at (919) 876-7187 or email fruitoflaborwcc@netscape.com. A social justice fundraiser.
Thursday, February 29; 6:00-8:00 PM; Prevent Diabetes Culinary Program Series; presented by Eatwell Exchange at FOLWCC.
Thursday, February 29; 6:30-8:00 PM; Black History Month Series: Lessons for Building our Liberation Movement; Building Power with our Organizations and Coalitions – food and beverages are free, but donations are accepted; RSVP to (919) 876-7187.
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Elizabeth Wagmeister
CTV News
Musicians have been facing pay cuts because of the change of the business model and how our product is distributed. We’ve got to fix that, so that our folks can continue to buy diapers, pay rent, pay mortgages, and have a decent retirement.
| The American Federation of Musicians, a union representing musicians across the entertainment industry, will begin negotiations Monday on a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) | |
After a year in which both actors and writers hit the picket lines, another Hollywood strike may be on the horizon.
The American Federation of Musicians (AFM), a union representing musicians across the entertainment industry, will begin negotiations Monday on a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).
The union said it is seeking a deal to better reflect the current state of streaming media. The AFM is also seeking AI protection, increased wages, health care improvements, improved working conditions, and residual payments for streaming content.
According to the AFM, musicians who record on soundtracks make 75 percent less on streaming content due to less residual income. “The entertainment industry has fundamentally shifted,” the union said in a news release. But musicians “are not being compensated accordingly for streaming media.”
AFM’s president and chief negotiator, Tino Gagliardi told CNN the union “is going to be prepared to do whatever it needs to get what we have to have, to make the lives of musicians better.”
“Our musicians have been facing pay cuts over the last year because of the change of the business model and how our product is distributed,” Gagliardi said. “We’ve got to fix that so that our folks can continue to buy diapers, pay rent, pay mortgages, and have a decent wage with a decent retirement.”
The AFM says it has roughly 70,000 members in the United States and Canada. Members include instrumental musicians working in orchestras, bands, clubs, and theaters who create music for film, television, commercials, and other mediums.
“Music is what gives our favorite movies and shows their soul, and these workers expect and deserve to be treated fairly and given the contract they’ve earned,” Gagliardi said. “We are going into these negotiations in good faith, and we hope the AMPTP is doing the same.”
The AMPTP told CNN in a statement it “looks forward to productive negotiations with the Federation, with the goal of concluding an agreement that will ensure an active year ahead for the industry and recognize the value that musicians add to motion pictures and television.”
The AFM will hold a news conference, rally and musical performance early Monday in front of the AMPTP headquarters in the Los Angeles suburb of Sherman Oaks.
The upcoming negotiations by the AFM come after long strikes in 2023 by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). The WGA strike lasted nearly five months and the SAG-AFTRA strike lasted nearly four months.
And the AFM is not the only union in the entertainment industry that might strike in 2024. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), which represents more than 170,000 production crew members, will see its contract expire in July. Matthew Loeb, the guild’s president, has not ruled out a strike.
“People are ready to fight and the studios would be ill-advised to assume that they’ve weakened us to the point where we can’t,” Loeb said earlier this month.
Due to the size of the IATSE and the necessity of crew members for production, a lengthy strike could be devastating for the studios and the California economy following the pandemic and the strikes of 2023.
“All of our Hollywood folks were hurting,” Gagliardi says. “We’re all in this together, and we’re all fighting for a cause.”
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Inside the Negro Middle Class (1968), Documentary | |
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SOUTHERN WORKERS ASSEMBLY'S WORKERS SCHOOL
will convene on Fri-Sun, May 17-19
AIRPORT HOLIDAY INN, CHARLOTTE NC
For now, please mark your calendar and share this information among active workers and our worker's assemblies, unions, and coworkers. Be on the lookout for registration info, a link to book hotel rooms, and additional guidance in the upcoming week or two.
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